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Friday, October 12, 2012

Pat Andrews Owns Jeff Cardwell In Debate Over CIB PILOT

God bless Pat Andrews for the many hours of time she volunteers to inform our City-County Council and the general public on the pressing issues facing our local government. In recent days, the downtown mafia has become apoplectic over a proposal by Councilor Brian Mahern (D) that would require the CIB for the first time to make a payment-in-lieu of taxes (PILOT) on the downtown facilities it maintains and operates, which are valued at more than $1.3 billion and on which no property taxes are paid, including the Lucas Oil Stadium, Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Victory Field and the Indiana Convention Center, despite the incredible amount of public safety resources that are expended for the benefit of those facilities every year. Mayor Greg Ballard and the Republicans on the council think that residential homeowners aren't paying enough taxes and should forfeit the $13 million tax savings they currently receive on their property tax bills by virtue of the homestead credit in order to help the City shore up a $55-60 million deficit the City faces next year. The Metropolitan Corporations Committee passed Councilor Mahern's resolution yesterday on a 5-3, party-line vote. In the first video, Councilor Jeff Cardwell, a business owner who directly benefits from a working partnership with the downtown mafia, makes the case that homeowners and not the billionaire sports team owners and downtown convention business interests should bear the burden of closing the City's budget deficit. Councilor Cardwell worries about the financial impact the $15 million PILOT will have on the CIB, which currently has more than $67 million in cash reserves. Pat Andrews, speaking for ordinary taxpayers, totally destroys the arguments advanced by Councilor Cardwell in explaining why the $15 million payment will have little impact on the CIB's bottom line if it simply exercises some restraint in handing out our taxpayer dollars to the billionaire sports team owners and the downtown convention business.

9 comments:

Everyone of those Republicans who stand for higher property taxes and more corporate welfare should be banned from using the GOP label the next election. I know it doesn't work like that, but it should. They're not standing up for fiscal conservative values...at all.

You're quite welcome, Pat. What you said needed to be spoken in response to all that BS that Cardwell put out. Unfortunately, the useless media we have in this town only reports on the perspective of the CIB and could give a damn less about the taxpayers' interests.

If a good investigative reporter wanted to do an expose' on a corrupt organization, it should investigate some of the things the ICVA has spent money on over the past several years. There would be a major shake-up in how its affairs were handled if the public ever was allowed to see the dubious things the organization has spent money on, not to mention the bloated salaries they pay to people who do nothing but travel around eating at the finest restaurants, boozing and partying all the time on the taxpayers' dime.

It was absolutely disgusting listening to all the Republican councilors offer their pathetic, handwringing about how they have no choice but to eliminate the homestead tax credit at the same time they pretend it would have a devastating impact to require the CIB to pay a PILOT. What they're telling me is that it's more important that they keep Herb Simon happy and keep the free tickets to Colts and Pacer games flowing to them and their families than how their decisions affect the pocketbooks of ordinary taxpayers. I absolutely despise what the Republican members of the council represent. They are not Republicans in the sense that I understand a Republican to be. They are not fiscally responsible, and they sure as hell are not on the side of the taxpayers. As a life-long Republican, I apologize for what horrible councilors my party has elected to the City-County Council.

On the homestead credit, I actually think there is little support among Councillors of either party.

At this point we know Lutz and Pfisterer are in favor of elimination. Hunter is sounding like it is inevitable, but he's not ready to vote yes yet. And Sandlin spoke against it and voted the same in committee.

I don't know what will happen next year, but its not going anywhere this year.

Ben Hunter is in bed with Ryan Vaughn in various profiteering ventures. He will vote to eliminate the homestead exemption. As the controller's map shows, the two council two districts whose constituents will most be affected by the elimination of the homestead credit is Angela Mansfield and Jack Sandlin, which is interesting since they both represent mostly middle class residents. I can see Jack holding firm based on his comments at the public hearing, but most of the other Republican councilors could care less. One of the things that I didn't like that Spaulding contended was that they couldn't see the need for shoring up the city's revenue base before this budget year. As you know, they were playing shell games last year by moving $40 million from the downtown TIF district. Contrary to the meme, Ballard has not had honestly balanced budgets. Spaulding wants to make a point of saying how generous the city is being in not passing through all the TIF revenues to the TIF district at the same time the administration keeps pushing for more and more expansion of TIF districts to further erode the tax base. The fact that these people are incapable of seeing a connection between expanding TIF areas and a smaller tax base is quite telling.

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